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The Pitfalls of a Pit Bull Russophobe, Fiona Hill

Ray McGovern
Consortium News
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 18:19 UTC
Fiona Hill
© REUTERS/Erin Scott
Former National Security Council Fiona Hill said Russia likely didn't have blackmail info on former President Donald Trump.
Fiona Hill's "Russian-expert" testimony Thursday and her deposition on Oct. 14 to the impeachment inquiry showed that her antennae are acutely tuned to what Russian intelligence services may be up to but, sadly, also displayed a striking naiveté about the machinations of U.S. intelligence.

Hill's education on Russia came at the knee of the late Professor Richard Pipes, her Harvard mentor and archdeacon of Russophobia. I do not dispute her sincerity in attributing all manner of evil to what President Ronald Reagan called the "Evil Empire." But, like so many other glib "Russia experts" with access to Establishment media, she seems three decades out of date.

I have been studying the U.S.S.R. and Russia for twice as long as Hill, was chief of CIA's Soviet Foreign Policy Branch during the 1970s, and watched the "Evil Empire" fall apart. She seems to have missed the falling apart part.

Selective Suspicion

Are the Russian intelligence services still very active? Of course. But there is no evidence — other than Hill's bias — for her extraordinary claim that they were behind the infamous "Steele Dossier," for example, or that they were the prime mover of Ukraine-gate in an attempt to shift the blame for Russian "meddling" in the 2016 U.S. election onto Ukraine. In recent weeks U.S. intelligence officials were spreading this same tale, lapped up and faithfully reported Friday by The New York Times.

Hill has been conditioned to believe Russian President Vladimir Putin and especially his security services are capable of anything, and thus sees a Russian under every rock — as we used to say of smart know-nothings like former CIA Director William Casey and the malleable "Soviet experts" who bubbled up to the top during his reign (1981-1987). Recall that at the very first meeting of Reagan's cabinet, Casey openly told the president and other cabinet officials: "We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." Were Casey still alive, he would be very pleased and proud of Hill's performance.
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Bad Guys

China envoy warns Canada of 'very bad damage' if it follows US lead on Hong Kong


The Japan Times
Sat, 23 Nov 2019 17:52 UTC
Japan ambassador canada Cong Peiwu
© The Canadian Press/Associated Press
Chinese Ambassador to Canada Cong Peiwu participates in a roundtable interview with journalists at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa on Friday.
China's new ambassador to Canada on Friday warned Ottawa not to follow the U.S. lead and formally back protesters in Hong Kong, saying such a move would cause "very bad damage" to already poor ties with Beijing.

Canada, locked in a trade and diplomatic dispute with China, has repeatedly expressed concern about the safety of its 300,000 citizens in Hong Kong, hit by five months of mass demonstrations for more democracy and autonomy.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed two bills to back the protesters and send a warning to China about human rights.

Comment: Trudeau and Canada are out of their depth here, but anyone with two neurons firing should be able to see that Canada is acting against its self-interest by toeing the U.S. line. It seems that it really is the "51st State".

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Caesar

Putin was nearly 'FIRED' in 1998 - from top spy job that propelled him to presidency


RT
Sat, 23 Nov 2019 14:24 UTC
Young putin 1999
© Sputnik / Sergey Subbotin
Vladimir Putin in 1999
Vladimir Putin could've had his career smashed months before becoming Russian president, a former Kremlin official claims. He says an influential PM made two attempts to sack Putin from his top job at the Federal Security Service.

Putin was in charge of the FSB between September 1998 and May 1999. His breakneck career progress then saw him become the first deputy Prime Minister, then PM, and finally Russia's caretaker President on December 31, 1999 - after Boris Yeltsin's surprise resignation.

But the current president's life story might have been quite different, claims the former head of Yeltsin's administration, Valentin Yumashev. The high-level Kremlin official did so in a candid interview with a prominent Russian-American journalist Vladimir Pozner, livestreamed on YouTube on Friday, which focused on the behind-the-scenes cabinet drama of the late 1990s.
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Star of David

NY Times' David Halbfinger manufactures propaganda piece about 'a new group of Arab thinkers' who want to end the Israel boycott

James North
Mondoweiss
Sat, 23 Nov 2019 14:10 UTC
David Halbfinger
© New York Times
David Halbfinger, NYT scribe for Israel
The New York Times Jerusalem correspondent David Halbfinger hit a new low yesterday with his article contending that "a new group of Arab thinkers" want to abandon the boycott of Israel. Normally, Halbfinger slants the news from Israel/Palestine; this time he basically just made much of it up.

His article is long by newspaper standards — 25 paragraphs — and accompanied by a couple of photographs. It starts off dramatically, by saying that the new group
has brought together Arab journalists, artists, politicians, diplomats, Quranic scholars and others who share a view that isolating and demonizing Israel has cost Arab nations billions in trade.

Comment: No surprise here. The New York Times has always carried water for Israel at the behest of the Deep State:

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Better Earth

Remembering John F. Kennedy's Vision For The Future That Should Have Been

Matthew Ehret
Sott.net
Sat, 23 Nov 2019 14:15 UTC
John Kennedy
Where China and Russia are currently leading a new paradigm of cooperation and development, it is too easily forgotten that America itself had once embodied this anti-colonial spirit under the foreign policy vision of John F. Kennedy. Even though the young leader died in office before the full effect of his grand vision could take hold, it is worth revisiting his fight and stated intention for a post-colonial world governed by win-win cooperation. This exercise is especially important now that we are coming to the anniversary of the murder of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

FDR's Death and the Emergence of the New Rome

America didn't become an imperial "dumb giant" after WWII without a major fight.

With FDR's death, the USA began acting more and more like an empire abroad and a racist police state under McCarthyism within its own borders. During this time, those allies of FDR who were committed to Roosevelt's anti colonial post war vision, rallied around former Vice President Henry Wallace's 1948 Presidential bid with the Progressive Party of America. When this effort failed, an outright police state took over and those same fascists who had sponsored WWII took control of the reins of power.
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MIB

Former NSA official says impeachment circus is manufactured by permanent Washington: 'Looks like an inside job'

Shelby Talcott
The Daily Caller
Wed, 20 Nov 2019 13:40 UTC
schiff nunes impeachment inquiry
© Shawn Thew/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Nunes call out Adam Schiff's 'story time' impeachment hearings
Former national security adviser Michael Anton suggested Wednesday the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump looks "like an inside job" lawmakers unhappy with the president manufactured.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff interrupted Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman's testimony during an impeachment hearing Tuesday and cited an effort to protect a whistleblower.

"It looks like an inside job of a bunch of career bureaucrats getting together and saying, 'We've wanted to impeach this guy for three years. How do we do it? Oh wait, I think we've found a way,'" Anton, a former National Security Council (NSC) spokesman, said to WMAL's Mornings on the Mall co-hosts Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter Wednesday. "Here's the issue."
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Mr. Potato

Yet another gaffe: Biden, in Democratic debate, says you have to 'keep punching' to address domestic violence

Maureen Groppe
USA Today
Thu, 21 Nov 2019 11:14 UTC
joe biden democratic debate
Vice President Joe Biden was asked Wednesday night how he would address sexual violence.

His response during the Democratic debate drew laughter from the crowd.

The former vice president was on firm ground when he began his answer by reminding the audience that he authored legislation to address violence against women.

Comment: Add it to the list of gaffes Biden has spewed out of his talk-hole over the past few months. The guy would do better in the long run if he said nothing.

See also:

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Newspaper

Labour's Corbyn will 'stay neutral as PM' when/if he orders 2nd Brexit referendum


RT
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 19:35 UTC
Corbyn
© REUTERS/Phil Noble
Labour's Party Jeremy Corbyn at the launch of the party manifesto in Birmingham on November 21, 2019.
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has said that he would remain neutral on a potential second Brexit referendum if he were elected Prime Minister next month. Corbyn promised in September to hold the Brexit vote again.

"I will adopt as prime minister, if I am, at the time, a neutral stance so that I can credibly carry out the results of that [referendum]," Corbyn told a BBC audience on Friday. Corbyn had hinted for some time that he would remain neutral on the topic, but had not addressed it directly until now.

Some Labour Party MPs have nevertheless vowed to campaign against Britain's departure from the EU. Scottish Labour's Richard Leonard said on Friday that his sub-party will continue to push back against Brexit, even if Corbyn secures a better deal with the EU next year and puts it to a referendum.

Comment: Sadly, as it is, on this issue, Corbyn has already turned off many of those who voted for Brexit. Although it's not over just yet, and he certainly has a lot going in his favor, because many of these same voters rightly fear a Conservative party who, for the most part, have been actively working towards dismantling the beloved and few remaining national institutions - such as the NHS - just waiting for the chance to sell them off to the highest bidder:

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Quenelle

US says 'destroy or return' Russian S-400s as Turkey's troops prepare for their activation


Sputnik
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 09:39 UTC
s400
© Sputnik/ Ilya Pitalev
The news comes a week after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan refused to ditch the S-400 air defence systems that Ankara has purchased from Russia, stating it is "not right". The politician noted that his country is ready to buy Patriot systems from the US on favourable terms, but dismissed the US demands as meddling in Turkey's sovereign affairs.

A senior US State Department official has urged the Turkish authorities to stop using Russian air defence systems, suggesting a radical solution to get Ankara back into the F-35 stealth fighter programme.

"There is room for Turkey to come back to the table. They know that to make this work they need to either destroy or return or somehow get rid of the S-400", the official told reporters at a briefing.

Comment: More details from Sputnik
The State Department said that Turkey must get rid of the S-400 systems that it obtained from Russia this year in order to "move forward" in its relations with the US, which has threatened to impose additional sanctions on the country otherwise.

Turkish Minister of Defence Hulusi Akar stated on 21 November that his country is going to activate and make use of the air defence systems that it bought under a contract with Russia inked in 2017.

"The S-400 will be functioning. At the moment, Turkish military personnel are undergoing training on the use of the S-400s. After this is concluded, the planned [use of the S-400s] will start. Do not doubt it", he said.

At the same time, Akar said that Turkey is currently working on making the use of both the S-400s and US-made F-35 jets possible. The minister stressed that the country is not going to sacrifice one weapon in order to make use of another, referring to the US unwillingness to ship its fifth generation jets to Ankara unless it ditches the S-400s.

"Can the F-35 and the S-400 work together? What are the negative effects on each other? Can they be prevented? How can we use it without any harm? We have started working on it. Even if they won't be able to work together, we will find a formula [to resolve the issue]", he said.
s400
© Sputnik / Vitaliy Ankov
US-Turkish Working Group

This year, Washington suspended shipments of F-35s ordered and paid for by Turkey, claiming that the Russian S-400s the country obtained earlier could harm the jet by revealing its weaknesses to Moscow. Ankara has repeatedly dismissed these concerns, arguing that Russia won't have access to air defence systems deployed in Turkey.

In addition to this, the US has threatened to impose sanctions against Turkey if it doesn't get rid of the S-400 systems, something that Ankara has repeatedly ruled out doing.

Following negotiations between Trump and Erdogan in November, the two countries established a group, including members of their national security teams, to address the bilateral issue that has recently been spoiling relations between Turkey and the US.
It's almost as though the US is blind to how feeble it looks with its increasingly hollow threats.

See also:

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Newspaper

"World war" on Iran failed, interrogations of fuel hike protesters reveal hand of "Zionists, America and Saudi Arabia" - RGC paramilitary General


Time of Israel
Fri, 22 Nov 2019 12:06 UTC
Tehran
© AP Photo/Vahid Salemi
File: Iranian Basij paramilitary forces chant slogans during a rally marking the 35th anniversary of establishment of the force, at Felestin (Palestine) square in Tehran, Iran, in 2014
Iran's Basij militia said the nationwide unrest sparked by fuel price hikes amounted to a "world war" against the Islamic republic that had been foiled.

The protests erupted across the sanctions-hit country on November 15, after the price of gas was raised by as much as 200 percent.

Authorities said leaders of the protests in which police stations were attacked, gas pumps torched and shops looted had been arrested.

Comment: The General's claims aren't without precedent:

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